IEEE 1394-1995 is the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, Inc. designation for a recently developed high speed serial bus. This designation is often referred to as IEEE1394, or the 1394 standard. The 1394 standard serial bus defines both a backplane physical layer and a point-to-point cable connected virtual bus. The backplane version operates at 12.5, 25 or 50 Mbits/sec. The cable version supports data rates of 100, 200 and 400 Mbits/sec across a cable medium. What this all means is that electronic devices can communicate faster than ever before across a cable medium.
External hard disk drives have been coupled, via a serial cable to the RS232 serial port of a desktop computer. The drawbacks of using serial ports and a serial cable for external hard disk drive are numerous. First, RS232 serial ports have a much slower throughput than optimal for a typical hard disk drive. Second, the length of the RS232 serial cable is limited. Third, "hot plugging" devices into a RS232 serial connector is not typically effective with today's hardware and operating systems. These are just a few examples.
The 1394 standard cable connection allows significantly improves data transfer rates, permits serial connection of numerous devices, facilitates "hot plugging" of devices and allows devices to be distanced further apart from each other. Other standards are expected to evolve, and succeed in replacing the 1394 standard with even faster throughput capability.